The Lincoln Log Cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln Was Born sentiment that slavery was morally indefensible, and that some means should be adopted looking to gradual emancipation. But the practical difficulty confronting those thus thinking was, what would be the status of the slave when freed? coupled with the feeling that to make him a free man dependent upon his own resources would, in a vast majority of instances, be inhumane and decree his ultimate extinction. Even in the North there was a large element of intelligent and conservative men who deprecated the agitation against slavery and who had not brought themselves to consent to the thought of coercion in the event of secession. But the continued propaganda preached against slavery, and the extreme utterances of partisans on either side, unquestionably by degrees had the effect of drawing a clear line of demarcation between the North and the South, both as to slavery and secession. I do not refer to this ancient history for the purpose of reviving discussions long since dead and buried, but merely to call attention to facts which have perhaps been obscured by the overwhelming events which followed. It can only be a matter of surmise and profitless speculation as to what would have happened had the Southern people been left to deal with this perplexing question in their own way. Perhaps slavery was too strongly rooted to be eradicated save by fire and sword, and it may be that in the mysterious movings of a Divine Providence the sins of the fathers were visited upon the children, and that the South paid the penalty for the violation of a great moral law. But it ought to be remembered, and I believe is now being remembered more and more, that it was not alone the sin of the South, although its expiation fell heaviest upon her people. In reading the public utterances of Lincoln during this period of bitter dissension, nothing has impressed me more than the singular clearness of his perception that the responsibility for slavery rested upon all our people and was a burden which should be borne by all alike. There was a temperance of statement, a respect for the opposite point of view, and a moderation in his positions, which, when the excitement of the time is considered, is most extraordinary and must command our admiration. Well would it have been for all our people had they been able to approach this burning question with the same conservatism and good sense. I have sometimes thought that this was to some extent due to the fact that his birth and early youth were in a slave-holding State, and that he understood the attitude and feeling of its people to a degree not possible for one born and reared in a community where slavery had long been unknown. He sincerely believed in an indissoluble Union. He sincerely believed that slavery was a curse and a great moral wrong; and in believing thus he was right. He was opposed not only to its extension, but believed the gradual emancipation was a possibility worth striving for; and yet he respected the Constitution and did not believe in the right to extinguish slavery by force. In all the speeches he made there can be found no word of ill will or malice toward the Southern people, and in reading his utterances no Southern man finds himself entertaining the slightest sentiment of resentment toward him, or aught save admiration for his sincerity, friendliness and broad humanity. His First Inaugural Address, delivered at a time when passion was at its height and civil war was imminent, is pathetic in its appeals for peace and union. His great heart seemed rent in twain, when he finished by saying: "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Alas, that the still, small voice of moderation and reason was drowned in the angry cries of determined men marshalling for a conflict, the magnitude of which few, if any, |